Best-selling crime author Patricia Cornwell told a federal courtroom on Friday that a firm of New York-based financial managers are to blame for her money problems, not her lavish spending which included $5m on private jets and a $40,000 per month lease at Trump Tower.

Despite earning over $10million a year in book sales, Cornwell is reportedly down to her last $13 million and has been forced to sell off her helicopter, sports cars and several homes in a bid to reduce her debt.

During a three-hour testimony before a Boston courtroom, Cornwell blamed bad advice by financial advisers Anchin, Block and Anchin LLP for a series of renovation mishaps, bad real estate deals and risky investments that have swallowed up her finances. She is seeking damages that could total more than $100million.

Crime fiction author Patricia Cornwell (pictured right with partner Staci Gruber) is at the centre of an epic legal battle against her accountants

However defense lawyer James Campbell said Cornwell's money worries were due to her extravagant lifestyle which included spending $1,000-per-day on a car service, a $10 million renovation project at her Massachusetts estate and the $1.2 million purchase of a Florida condo.

The best-selling crime author also spent $40,000 a month for an apartment at Trump Tower in New York City, $200,000 in taxes alone for her customized, personal helicopter, $5million for private jets to ferry her across the country and $11million for private estates in Concord, Massachusetts. She also had several employees, including one who was paid $100,000.

RELATED ARTICLES

Share this article

The trial has cast a harsh spotlight on the intensely private 56-year-old. Cornwell lives with her longtime partner, Harvard University neuroscientist Staci Gruber.

'Where did the money go? Ms Cornwell and Dr Gruber spent the money,' said Campbell. 'You have to consider the large lifestyles involved, the
spending habits, impulsive buying.'

Cornwell's crime novels, most of which follow Virginia forensic examiner Kay Scarpetta, have made Cornwell a nationally-recognized name. Her books - which lean heavily on the use of forensic science - are credited as a major influence for the TV show 'CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.'

Author Patricia Cornwell, with spouse Staci Gruber to her right, leaves federal court in Boston after taking the stand in her lawsuit against her former financial management company

Her novels, including 'Postmortem,' 'Cruel and Unusual' and 'Book of the Dead' have sold more than 100million copies worldwide.

This is not the first time Cornwell has begrudgingly found herself in the spotlight. In the early 1990s, Cornwell had an affair with Margo Bennett, a married
FBI agent, which came out years later after Bennett's estranged husband
was arrested and convicted for the attempted murder of his wife and the
abduction of her pastor.

Cornwell has also publicly revealed that she struggles with bipolar disorder. Her lawyer argues that she hired Snapper and his firm to insulate herself from her money and that Snapper knew this and took advantage of her over her four-and-a-half-year relationship with the company.

'This case is, at its core, about trust,' her lawyer, Joan Lukey, told
the jury. 'There is no amount of money that is enough to properly
compensate her for what Anchin, Block and Anchin did.'

Cornwell has been forced to sell off a number of luxury sports cars including a Ferrari

The crime writer spent $5million on private jets to ferry her across the country

Cornwell fired the firm after discovering in July 2009 that the net
worth of her and her company, despite having earning above $10million in earnings per
year during the previous four years, was a little under $13million, the
equivalent of only one year's net income.

She also claims in the lawsuit that Anchin had borrowed several
million dollars, including mortgages for property and a loan for the
purchase of a helicopter, and had lost millions by moving her from a
conservative investment strategy to high-risk without her permission.

She said she also found checks written for expenses she never
authorized, including a $5,000 check for a bat mitzvah gift to Snapper's
daughter from Cornwell, she alleges.

According to the Boston Globe, she claims money for 46 rare books she purchased was also mishandled. And, she says, Snapper steered investments into a development backed by one of his associates - Bobby DeNiro, the son of actor Robert DeNiro.

Wildly popular: Most of Cornwell's novels center around Virginia medical examiner Kay Scarpetta. The novels, which have sold 100million copies worldwide, are credited with introducing the forensic science crime genre

Lavish: Cornwell's financial manager claims the author lost most of her money because she spent it living lavishly - including $40,000 a month for a room in Trump Tower

Cornwell says problems caused by Anchin and Snapper were so
distracting that they caused her to miss a book deadline for the first
time in her career and cost her $15 million in non-recoverable advances
and commissions.

After Cornwell filed the lawsuit in 2009, Snapper pleaded guilty to
violating campaign finance laws by buying $50,000 in tickets to an Elton
John concert benefiting Hillary Rodham Clinton, using Cornwell's money.
He paid a fine.

Cornwell, a Virginia native, is politically connected herself - though she has preferred to support Republican candidates in the past.

She reportedly summered with President George H.W. Bush in Kennebunkport, Maine, and has close family ties to evangelist Billy Graham - even acting as a spokesperson for the family.

Lawyers for Anchin and Snapper deny Cornwell's claims. During opening
statements at the trial, attorney Campbell described Cornwell as
'a demanding client' who 'tends to push off responsibility and assign
blame when things go off track.'

'I do what I do when and how I do it,' she allegedly wrote in an email to Snapper read by Campbell to the jury.

Cornwell said one of Anchin's primary functions in 2006 was to ensure that locations were arranged where she could write without distraction while her home was undergoing reconstruction.

She said Snapper leased a series of expensive apartments, including one at Trump Tower in New York, that she had to leave long before leases expired because of construction, privacy or other issues.

In the lawsuit, Cornwell openly acknowledges her struggles with bipolar disorder, an illness she said has contributed to her belief that she needs other people to manage her business affairs and investments. She said Anchin was aware of her illness.